


Something Worth Dying For

by AriesOnMars



Series: Never Say Die [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 14:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13366977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriesOnMars/pseuds/AriesOnMars
Summary: After their first encounter in years Barriss Offee must call on her old friend Ahsoka Tano again. Between bloodshed, between rebuilding trust, between old past pains and growing desire they may taste what it truly means when affection can become too dark, and when love may be tainted by the Dark Side of the Force.Ahsoka may yet discover what it was that destroyed her Master, Anakin Skywalker, and only with Barriss's help will she manage to keep from being brought low by it too.





	Something Worth Dying For

The music in the crowded room was loud, almost abrasive, and Barriss suspected that the appeal of it was in the bass and not in the talent behind it. People sought out places like this to avoid being overheard, to be almost invisible amongst the mass of people and mute in the pounding notes from an aimlessly wandering song.

 

It was, after all, why she was there.

 

Ahsoka had sought her out first, and this time Barriss was the one reaching out. She wasn’t given much, only a contact with whom Barriss could set a time and a place to meet, and she wasn’t surprised. Even if they were both hiding from the Empire Ahsoka had no true reason to trust her, even after a night shared together.

 

“You’d cut a prettier figure if you wore a little less.”

 

Barriss had heard worse, and she doubted the comment would have even raised an eyebrow for the rest of the patrons, but it riled her and made her purse her lips into a line behind her veil. She turned to face the speaker and paused. In the blaring noise and mass of bodies she wasn’t the only one who had become invisible, and while with a smirk and a drink in hand the woman looked hardly similar to the one Barriss had left behind months ago she could still see her old friend. Ahsoka was grinning at her as though half-drunk already and she raised her glass.

 

“What do you say? Let me see how pretty you are under all those layers.”

 

Barriss felt herself blush, even she knew no one would have heard the comment even if they had been trying to listen in. Most weren’t, they had their own interests to attend to, some like hers, some like the one Ahsoka was pretending to have.

 

“What if I’m not as lovely as you expect?” Barriss had to raise her voice to be heard in the bar, and she felt both silly and oddly free at continuing the ruse.

 

“Then you’ll be prettier, and I’d like to see that,” Ahsoka raised a hand and gestured towards herself, and after a moment’s pause Barriss tucked in against her and let Ahsoka put her arm around her shoulders.

 

“What is that?” Barriss nodded to the glass. There was a little more privacy with being so close, she could lower her voice some safe in the knowledge that the music would blot out the sound.

 

“I have no idea, I just grabbed it,” Ahsoka said and set the cup down to push it away. It made sense, a patron of a bar is expected to drink but drinks are expensive especially if you don’t actually want to be inebriated, and there are more than a few who have had more than enough and wouldn’t notice a half-drained cup going missing.

 

“Shall we leave?” Barriss asked, and she glanced up to Ahsoka’s horns. The music and noise was near deafening to her, but to Ahsoka, with so much more sensitive hearing, it must have been physically painful.

 

“One second,” Ahsoka pulled back just a little, reached into a pouch on her side, and took out a credit to hold it to Barriss with a grin. Barris stared at it, and then Ahsoka made a show of sighing and reaching to take out another and hold them both to her, “My last offer, pretty lady.”

 

Barriss was confused for another moment, and then it clicked, and she blushed harder behind her veil before she played the part and took the credits, slipping them up her sleeve and tucking in close against Ahsoka to lead the way out. She didn’t smell at all like drink but Ahsoka stumbled as though she’d downed half the bar’s supply of liquor, and with their seemingly crass actions no one paid them any mind. Out on the street Ahsoka lost her stagger the farther they got from the bar, but she kept her arm around Barriss even as they continued on.

 

“Sorry about that,” Ahsoka said after a few minute’s silence. “I didn’t want it looking like we were meeting up, and there’s not a whole lot of other reasons to get someone out of a skeezy bar that fast after apparently just meeting them.”

 

“I’m not upset,” Barriss smiled faintly, and she reached up to unfasten her veil as they left the lightened street behind them and headed into the darker alleys. They had no fear of the darkness, any poor souls who thought they could rob or threaten the two women in the dark would meet a sorry fate indeed. “I will admit, I’ve pretended to be a few things over the years but a prostitute has never been among them.”

 

“Sorry you had to be a cheap one, then. My credits?”

 

Barriss took them out of her sleeve and handed the credits back, and Ahsoka’s fingers lingered on hers for longer than they needed to as she took them.

 

“Why did you want to see me?” Ahsoka asked quietly.

 

“I’ve missed you,” Barriss admitted.

 

“I’ve missed you too.”

 

Barriss didn’t expect the soft reply, and she paused in the alley. Above them the clouds moved and a sliver of moonlight shone down, illuminating enough that Barriss could see her friend’s white markings. She had the urge to touch the ones on her cheeks, but managed to refrain.

 

“And I’ve been hoping to accompany you for a time. I’ve been… I am not in a good position to be alone for too long anymore.”

 

“Is there another one after you?”

 

Barriss didn’t have to ask her to clarify. She could remember the Kaminoan and the echoing voice his mask threw in every direction far too clearly.

 

“Yes,” she answered softly. “There are two now. I needed you before, and I need you now.”

 

Ahsoka’s arm tightened around her shoulders and pulled her close again, and the Togruta’s voice was low with an unspoken threat that both thrilled and soothed Barriss.

 

“I’ll protect you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter was written in 30 minutes for a speed writing challenge.


End file.
